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Topic: freaking HOT hive....@#%$ (Read 8519 times)

that will work, but it would be easier to break up the hive and do it. also, be aware that queens can go through the excluder.

if you do the whole stack at once, you will have many, many, bees in the air. if you do one box at a time....better, i think.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called the government. They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

Divide and conquer is definitely the way to go. Also, if you have a bee suit it is wise to augment all of the places that bees might gain access with our old friend duct tape. It works wonders. Another way to help rid yourself of all the old forager bees for now would be to vacuum them up as they take off and return. A bee vac would be humane. A regular old shop vac would work but many would die (might not be a bad thing). A mean hive depleted of old foragers can be quite workable.

Gail, you definitely sound tough enough to tackle this problem, my experience has been that the hottest queens are also runners, they wont stay on the frame with eggs like most queens, do like BTS says break the hive down on day one, then on day 4 go in and look for eggs,and enjoy the rewardBob

Gailmo -While the offer of a few martinis is tempting, from the look of your gloves, I will decline. You're right, beekeeping should be pleasurable, so re-queening is the way to go...its just how to accomplish that is the issue.I have new found love and respect for my own very gentle girls... Please let us know how your saga ends!

A shop vac will work wonders, if you just have to knock back the attack population a bit. When you have a better suit,that can get you into the hive so you can split it into 3-4 new hives. A nicer queen is fine but and queen with a big hive can be tough - the big ones have a tremendous amount of field bees.

My recommendations on the bee suit - I agree wholeheartedly with "beyondthesidewalks" on augmenting the bee suit with duct-tape or extra gauntlets at the places you might have entry or more exposure ( i.e. at places where elastic bands pull the material closet to your body).

I'll sheepishly admit to this... Last week I got stupid, and decided to go into my big hive with no smoke. I wanted to simply grab a frame of eggs for a trap-out - but it took me MUCH longer than I expected. They got pissy, and started exploring for places to sting me. 4 went up my pants-legs. 2 got my hips, and one got a blue-ribbon for "ringing the bell", so to speak. I high-tailed it into the house to check the damage, and to mentally regroup. On my return to the the yard to put the box back together - I wound up taking a total of 27 stings to my wrists (through the heavy duty nitrile gloves) and my ankles. An hour later - I sipped a little liquid benadryl, and was good to continue working my day-job.

Whatever equipment got stung - I'd wash. You want the alarm phermone to no longer be on the gloves, veil, jacket, gauntlets, hive-tool, etc. when you go back in.

One time I just broke them up with every box from the original on it's own bottom and put a queen in a cage (the next day) in each and an empty back on the original stand. The field bees end up on the original bottom (with a queen as well). The one with the dead queen is the one with the queen. Then I broke it up into five frame nucs and let them drift. The one with the most bees has the queen. Then I broke it into two five frame nucs with two to three frames in each. Then I looked for the queen.

I had that problem last year, but not like these "sting-happy" bees. I couldn't walk into the barnyard without getting dive bombed. I split them last June, and left the original hive and queen in the woods. They seem a lot calmer in March than come May.

I put 5 frames in a nuc, then went and got a queen from a local. They'd been queenless about 24 hours, I held the caged queen over the nuc, brushed the bees off, held her over the hive, and noted the difference. They either love her or want to kill her.

In researching what to do, I found what was called the "finger test." The idea being the happy bees would move when prodded and the angry bees would just hang on red eyed. Problem is, lonely bees don't want to let go either. If you watch, the angry bees will want to sting the cage, tear the screen off, and torture the invaders. The lonely bees will sidle up and make all kiss-kiss and nice-nice.

After a while you can prod them and get them to move though.

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"Thinking is like sin, them that doesn't is scairt of it, and them that does gets to liking it so much they can't quit!" -Josh Billings.

Gailmo,I live in SW Florida and run into nasty wild bee colonies every now and again. My first exposure to really nasty bees ended quickly like yours did. So did the second and third try at that colony. The fourth time I went in with a new Tyvek suit complete with booties and hood from a big box store; polyethylene gloves 1/8" thick and a wide brimmed veil: lots and lots of smoke . That time I was able to stay and clean out the hive even tho I had so many bee's on the veil that i could not see out of it.. A partner and I are in the process of removing 4 colonies from under a Stilt Home (raised up on stilts so you can walk under the house) and they are hot. She came out the first day with thin leather gloves and they looked like your after 10 minutes or so. I sprayed her gloves with a mixture of Tea Tree Oil and Walnut extract in alcohol and she never got stung again.You don't need to worry weather or not they are AHB's because the Europeans can get just as nasty. <http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/andy-nachbaur/bees-with-an-attitude/>is a link to a story about hot bees that you should read.Get a good suit, go back in armor plated and finish the queen. Don't quit.RegardsJoe

Ive got a hive like that now-two of them actually. I split it this year hoping that a daughter queen wouldnt be as pissy as her mother. Now, both of them are hot. They require tons of smoke to be manageable. Darn good honey producers, but probably will be on the chopping block for requeening next year.

A quick, but not totally resolved update on the hive. I bought a Golden Bee suit and can report that you probably could be nude in it and the bees couldn't sting through it. I haven't tried wearing it that way, but honestly, it really keeps the stingers away from your body. The suit allows me to work these Nasty ladies.

Regarding the hive.....I was lazy and didn't have time nor the extra queens to do splits. I just kept tossing on extra mediums every couple of weeks. They still are very pissy but seem to have survived the summer heat well. I am in Maine right now---trying to eat every lobster in the state---but when I get home, I am going to pull any extra honey from the hive, condense the supers for winter and see how they do this winter....if they survive, I will requeen in the spring when I think it will be easier to do.

So stay tuned. When I get home, I am going to pull on my super suit and see what the girls will try to do to me! I imagine they are not going to be too happy.

One time I just broke them up with every box from the original on it's own bottom and put a queen in a cage (the next day) in each and an empty back on the original stand. The field bees end up on the original bottom (with a queen as well). The one with the dead queen is the one with the queen. Then I broke it up into five frame nucs and let them drift. The one with the most bees has the queen. Then I broke it into two five frame nucs with two to three frames in each. Then I looked for the queen.

X:X X:X X:X X:X X:X

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

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"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/